Eng­land to dis­cuss war vet­eran trib­ute with FIFA

Eng­land are ne­go­ti­at­ing with FIFA over whether they can wear a poppy trib­ute to war vet­er­ans when they play Scot­land on Armistice Day on Novem­ber 11, of­fi­cials said. The Sun news­pa­per said FIFA had re­fused to let Eng­land and Scot­land dis­play pop­pies on their shirts dur­ing the game be­cause it would be a po­lit­i­cal state­ment. How­ever a FIFA spokesper­son told AFP: “Fifa is in touch with the English FA on this mat­ter.” The English Foot­ball As­so­ci­a­tion said: “We are work­ing closely with the Royal Bri­tish Le­gion (a char­ity for ex-ser­vice­men) once again this year to hon­our and re­mem­ber the sac­ri­fices made by those serv­ing in the armed forces. “In re­cent weeks, the FA has led re­mem­brance dis­cus­sions with FIFA to al­low the Eng­land team to show its sup­port for the poppy ap­peal dur­ing the World Cup qual­i­fier with Scot­land.” A spokes­woman for Bri­tish Prime Min­is­ter Theresa May told re­porters at the House of Com­mons: “FIFA and the FA are talk­ing about it at the mo­ment. “The prime min­is­ter her­self got her poppy yes­ter­day (Mon­day), and she thinks that it is im­por­tant that peo­ple across the coun­try can pay trib­ute to the brav­ery and sac­ri­fice of ser­vice­men and women killed in con­flict and wear their pop­pies with pride.” — AFP

LON­DON: File photo of Bri­tish boxer An­thony Joshua as he holds up his belt af­ter de­feat­ing US boxer Do­minic Breazeale in their IBF heavy­weight ti­tle bout at the O2 Arena in Lon­don. Joshua will make the sec­ond de­fense of his IBF world heavy­weight ti­tle in a fight against Amer­i­can boxer Eric Molina on Dec 10.— AP